This is an image of comet Hale-Bopp.
Click on image for full size
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
Touring the Comets
News story originally written on December 1, 1997
NASA has chosen CONTOUR as the next mission in its Discovery Program. CONTOUR stands for the Comet Nucleus Tour.
CONTOUR will explore three comets by flying very close to them. At one point, CONTOUR will be within 60 miles of the Comet Encke!
The mission will be launched in July 2002 and will end in 2008.(How old will you be then?)
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